Wii U Gamepad

Back in 1992, I was disappointed with Alien 3. Expecting another tension-filled action flick, I got a slow-moving film that expanded the fiction but didn’t particularly grab me the way the previous ones had. It was a decent movie but it failed to live up to the past two’s standards. (Let’s ignore the Dumpster fire that is Alien: Resurrection.)

Fast-forward more than 20 years later and those hoping for a real sequel to Aliens may finally have their prayers answered. Thanks to Gearbox Software, gamers will have an opportunity to go back to LV-426 and the warship Sulaco. Taking place 17 weeks after the events of the James Cameron film, Aliens: Colonial Marines puts players in the role of Col. Christopher Winter who is aboard the Sephora.

They’re responding to the distress signal sent out by Corporal Hicks in Aliens. They arrive to see the Sulaco still orbiting the planet for some reason, and it’s the location for one of the two levels that I played during a preview event last week in San Francisco. Winter and his comrades board the derelict ship only to find out that the Weyland-Yutani corporation has taken over it. They were using it as some kind of lab.

The Olympics put a spotlight on London. Over 17 days, viewers got to know several parts of the city — the Eye, Big Ben and the Tower Bridge. For those wanting to see more of the sights, they can travel there vicariously through an upcoming video game.

The good: It’s cheaper than a plane flight across the Atlantic. The bad (depending on your perspective): It will be full of zombies. That’s the setting for the Wii U launch title ZombiU. I had a chance to play an updated build of the launch title last week at a pre-Gamescom event in San Francisco. (Here are my first impressions.)

The demo was focused on an escape from Buckingham Palace, and during the play-through, I got a little more insight into how the game works. Players start at a safe house and they travel to locations via sewer tunnels. It instantly transports players to the destination as long as they have already been there.

With the release of a new Nintendo console, the first-party titles usually have the edge. The internal teams have known about the system for a while and enjoy longer development times. The result are a high quality releases that generally overshadow their third-party counterparts.

I’d expect the same scenario for the Wii U launch, but it looks like Platinum Games and Ubisoft Montpelier have grasped the potential of the Wii U Gamepad and created compelling core games for it. I played two of them recently. Here are my quick thoughts:

Although The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess drew most of the hype during the launch of the Wii, it was Wii Sports that caught the imagination of the public and carried the system. The pack-in title with a few simple minigames showed off what Nintendo’s console and Wii remote could do, helping drive the initial adoption of the system.

With the Wii U, there is going to be a lot said of Pikmin 3 and New Super Mario Bros. U, but the game that could potentially sell families on the upcoming console is Nintendo Land. The game, planned for the system’s launch window, is exactly what it sounds like — a theme park starring Nintendo characters.

Nintendo kicked off the pre-E3 festivities with a video announcement by its Global President Satoru Iwata. He detailed new features of what’s offically now the Wii U Gamepad. Here’s the run down of the new things the gadget can do.

* Nintendo changed the design from the prototype. It now features analog sticks instead of circle pads. That allows the sticks to act similarly to the R3 and L3 button on a DualShock 3.

* The Wii U Gamepad will act as a remote for your TV. I hope this works with DirecTV.

* It has an NFC Reader/Writer for certain products. (I imagine it will be like Skylanders.) It’s located right below the left analog stick.

* Interesting use of the Wii U Gamepad as a third screen. They showed a someone playing golf. They put the Wii U Gamepad on the ground and it showed the ball. Meanwhile, they used the Wii remote like a golf club to hit it.

* It has a social network-type channel. You can post to a Wii U message board similar to Twitter. It’s called an Activity Feed and you can also see it on your smartphone. It lets players get tips from other fans.

* You can video chat from the Wii U and get tips from other players that way. I wonder if that means the Wii U and Wii U Gamepad comes with a stand. In the video, it seems to have one.

* Mii Wara Wara is the opening screen. It’s a gathering of sorts. It translates to the general noise and commotion from a crowd. Your Mii will be there and other Miis that are on your Wii U system. Your Friends’ Miis are there and other Miis enjoying the same channels will also appear. They’ll be gathered around tiles that appear to show what games they’re playing.

* Miiverse — A network communication system. It’s basically what Nintendo is calling its social network. You can use it like Twitter or you can use it to write hand-written messages. It can be accessed by all games.

* Interesting that you can leave Demon’s Souls type of messages in games via Miiverse. That’s a potential use.

*Miiverse will also be available via Nintendo 3DS, PC or any mobile device. But being able to see it on the Web won’t be immediately available. There’s also a browser built in the WiiU

* There’s a little curtain app that puts a virtual curtain on your main TV. It lets you surprise people with what’s on your Wii U Gamepad screen. When you want to reveal what you’re viewing, you can flick it to the main screen and voila. I can imagine marriage proposals done via Wii U. I’m sure it will happen.